Bomb, guns and ammunition seized at wharf

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ACP Devon Watkis, head of the Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime Investigation Branch.

Jamaican police yesterday said it cracked a major gun smuggling operation between Jamaica and the United States, seizing among other things, a bomb, three guns and approximately 1,000 rounds of ammunition.

Detectives from the Guns-for-Trade Task Force (G4T), which comprises of members Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime Investigation Branch (C-TOC) and Narcotics Division as well as operatives from the Jamaica Customs Department's Contraband Enforcement Team recovered a Bushmaster rifle, one Comanche 357 revolver, and one Para-Ordinance .45 pistol.

cleaning accessory

The investigators, who have so far arrested one man, also seized one tactical smoke bomb, a firearm cleaning accessory, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

Assistant Commissioner of Police, Devon Watkis, head of C-TOC, said that the seizure of any one firearm is a victory, but stressed that the "real victory, is when you can take one round off the streets".

"We were fortunate enough to intercept more than 1,000 assorted round. When a round is expended from a firearm, there is no mechanism in the world that can stop it when it is expelled. So if you are able to find them before it is expelled, it must be hailed as a victory," Watkis said.

The seizure of the three firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition took place at a warehouse in Newport West, Kingston.